The process behind a snow day

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By Matt Durr

Hillsdale.net - Hillsdale, MI

By Matt Durr

Posted Feb. 28, 2013 at 8:25 AM
Updated Feb 28, 2013 at 8:25 AM

By Matt Durr

Posted Feb. 28, 2013 at 8:25 AM

Hillsdale, Mich.

matt.durr@hillsdale.netHILLSDALE — One of the more lasting memories of being is child is the exuberant feeling of waking up and seeing snowfall on the ground.Almost immediately the question becomes: “Is school cancelled today?”Anxiously, children and parents sit by the television or radio and await the confirmation of the ever-joyous snow day — a chance to sleep in and spend the day doing anything but sitting in class.The whole process of being granted the unexpected gift usually lasts an hour or so in the morning.But for those who make the decision to cancel school, it’s a much longer and more strenuous decision.“It’s one of the hardest decisions a superintendent has to make. It’s one of those situations where everyone has an opinion on it,” said Pittsford Area Schools Superintendent Andrew Shaw.With so many factors needing to be determined before any final decision can be made, administrators at each of the school districts in Hillsdale County might spend an entire sleepless night waiting to make the call. Sometimes that decision is made just hours before school is scheduled to start.No matter what the decision, some parents are going to be upset for various reasons. Shaw said that no matter what his call is, if a parent thinks the roads are too bad for their child to be on, they can call in the absence and the school will excuse it.“The major thing that we have to look at is first of the safety of getting students to school and getting them home,” said North Adams Jerome Superintendent Carl Christenson.The process for determining whether or not classes will be cancelled or delayed usually starts the day before when it becomes apparent that bad weather is on its way. Administrators will begin by looking at how much snow or ice is coming and is it enough to consider cancelling classes. They continue to monitor the amount of snow on the ground and how the conditions are shaping up. From there, the districts will coordinate with the county or bus supervisors to determine if the roads will be cleared or at least manageable for traveling in the morning.Administrators will also consider if they have enough time to warn families of their decision in order to give them enough notice to make plans.“Are we open or are we closed? I like that sort of mindset because we don’t want to beat our parents up,” Shaw said.With that mindset, schools are hoping to avoid the dreaded two-hour delay or even worse, sending students home early. When those decisions are made, parents have to be contacted and in some cases, have to leave work early to pick up or supervise their child.On some nights, Shaw said he will get up every two hours or so from sleeping to check the weather outside and see if he needs to start getting in touch with the right people. Sometimes he goes driving on the roads to see what the conditions are like.Christenson said their bus supervisor does the same thing, mostly in an effort to gauge what it will be like for people coming into school.“If the blacktop roads are bad, we can pretty much guess what the dirt roads are going to be,” Christenson said.Another factor to consider for superintendents is the amount of time the schools have missed because of prior snow days. Because the schools are required to be open a certain amount of days and hours during the year, that can sometimes factor into the decision.Still, that isn’t the top priority.“At the end of the day I try to do what’s best for our kids and our staff,” Shaw said.